Dust-Free Edge Cuts
When you’re trimming the edge of a board at the table saw, most of the dust and chips seem to fly back at you rather than get pulled into the dust-collection shroud below the table. It’s annoying. The little particles irritate your hands and make a mess, not to mention the cloud of dust that’s now floating around the shop.
One effective solution is shown here. A strip of plywood on the other side of the blade channels the dust down below the table where it can get sucked away.
The strip is held in place by a pair of rare-earth magnets embedded in the bottom face, as you can see in the inset photo. This way you don’t have to mess with clamps or double-sided tape. The magnets keep the strip from shifting during a cut or catching on the blade. Locate the strip parallel to the blade, but not touching it. *-Charles Mak Calgary, Alberta *
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Clamp Head Stop.
Bill Cassaday of Woodstown, NJ attaches a binder clip to the bar on his Microjig dovetail clamps to keep them from dropping when moving them around or swapping pieces out. This way he can easily reposition a workpiece without the clamp head falling and causing things to bind up.
For future use, attach the clip to the bar after lowering the clamp in place.
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Lathe Story Stick
It’s easy to turn a single item at the lathe. However, to make several matching items, the layout gets tedious. To increase consistency and speed up the process, make a story stick like you see here.
The story stick is a piece of plywood with a series of nails embedded in the edge. The nails define key details on the turning. Clip the heads and use them to score your blanks for faster layouts. -Logan Wittmer Runnells, IA
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| Clipped nails score a round blank to define details for making multiple turnings. |
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Quick Tenon Sizer
An openend wrench comes in handy for turning. You can use a wrench as a gauge to accurately size tenons. Gently hold the wrench jaws against the workpiece with one hand. The other guides a parting tool to trim the tenon until the wrench drops over the tenon. -Logan Wittmer Runnells, IA
